The invention generally relates to a system and method to seal using swellable materials. More specifically, the invention relates to a sealing system, such as an anchor or a packer, that includes a swellable material that swells and therefore creates a seal when the material comes into contact with a triggering fluid.
Sealing systems, such as packers or anchors, are commonly used in the oilfield. Packers, for instance, are used to seal the annulus between a tubing string and a surface exterior to the tubing string, such as a casing or an open wellbore. Commonly, packers are actuated by hydraulic pressure transmitted either through the tubing bore, annulus, or a control line. Other packers are actuated via an electric line deployed from the surface of the wellbore.
Therefore, for actuation, most packers require either enabling instrumentation disposed in the wellbore or a wellbore intervention necessary to ready the wellbore for actuation (such as the dropping of a ball to create a seal against which to pressure up the activation mechanism of the packer). However, deploying additional enabling instrumentation in the wellbore complicates the deployment of the completion system and may introduce reliability issues in the activation of the packer. Moreover, conducting an intervention to ready the wellbore for actuation adds cost to the operator, such as by increasing the rig time necessary to complete the relevant operation.
In addition, the majority of packers are constructed so that they can provide a seal in a substantially circular geometry. However, in an open wellbore (or in an uneven casing or tubing), the packer is required to seal in geometry that may not be substantially circular.
Thus, there is a continuing need to address one or more of the problems stated above.